Requiem for a Dream (film)
Encyclopedia
Requiem for a Dream is a 2000 drama film
directed by Darren Aronofsky
and starring Ellen Burstyn
, Jared Leto
, Marlon Wayans
and Jennifer Connelly
. The film is based on the novel of the same name
by Hubert Selby, Jr.
, with whom Aronofsky wrote the screenplay. Burstyn was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress
for her performance. The film was screened out of competition at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival
.
The film depicts different forms of addiction
, leading to the characters’ imprisonment in a world of delusion and reckless desperation that is subsequently overtaken and devastated by reality.
), her son Harry (Jared Leto
), Harry’s girlfriend Marion Silver (Jennifer Connelly
), and Harry’s friend Tyrone C. Love (Marlon Wayans
).
The story begins in summer; Sara Goldfarb, an elderly widow living alone in Brighton Beach
, Brooklyn
, spends her time watching infomercial
s hosted by Tappy Tibbons (Christopher McDonald
). After a phone call announces that she will be invited to be a participant on a game show, she becomes obsessed with regaining the youthful appearance she possesses in a photograph from Harry's graduation, her proudest moment. In order to fit into her old red dress, the favorite of her deceased husband Seymour, she begins taking a regimen of prescription weight-loss
amphetamine
pills throughout the day and a sedative
at night. Despite Harry’s warnings about amphetamine addiction, she passionately insists that the chance to be on television has given her a reason to live. When her invitation does not arrive over the fall, she increases her dosage but begins suffering from amphetamine psychosis, hallucinating that she is the principal subject of the game show and that her refrigerator is a menacing, living monster.
Harry is a heroin addict; together with fellow addicts Tyrone and Marion, he enters the illegal drug trade
around Coney Island
in an attempt to realize their dreams. With the money they make over the summer, Harry and Marion hope to open a fashion store for Marion’s designs, while Tyrone dreams of making his mother proud by escaping the street. However, at the beginning of fall, Tyrone is caught in the middle of a drug gang assassination, and Harry must use most of their money to post bail. Increasing drug-related violence and arrests begin making it hard to obtain drugs, throwing Harry, Tyrone, and Marion into a state of deprivation. Growing more desperate, Harry convinces Marion to have sex with her psychiatrist in exchange for money, causing a rift in the relationship. Meanwhile, Harry’s arm is becoming infected from unsanitary injection techniques.
As Sara’s sanity unravels, she takes the subway to visit the television studio in Manhattan
. The secretary at the studio calls a hospital and Sara is involuntarily committed
to a psychiatric ward where she undergoes unsuccessful medicative treatment, followed by electroconvulsive therapy
. Harry and Tyrone set out for Florida to obtain drugs, but Harry’s increasingly infected arm forces them to visit a hospital in South Carolina
, where they are arrested for skipping bail. Tyrone must deal with hard labor, racist prison guards and drug withdrawal
, as Harry is taken to a prison hospital to have his arm amputated
. Harry has a recurring dream of Marion waiting for him at a pier at Coney Island, but awakens and realizes that he is alone in jail with just one arm. Back in New York, Marion meets with a pimp (Keith David
), who gives her drugs in exchange for sex and puts her in sex show
s to provide for her drug habit.
Lost in misery, each character curls into a fetal position
. In Sara’s dream, she wins the game show’s grand prize and meets Harry there. In her fantasy, Harry is a successful businessman and engaged to Marion. Sara and Harry hug and say how much they love one another through the cheers of the crowd and the glowing stage lights.
In the United Kingdom
, the film was given an 18 certificate
by the BBFC.
of "drug movies", along with films like Trainspotting
, Spun
, and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
. However, Aronofsky has said:
In the book, Selby refers to the "American Dream
" as amorphous and unattainable, a compilation of the various desires of the story's characters.
) and time-lapse
photography are also prominent stylistic devices.
In order to portray the shift from the objective, community-based narrative to the subjective, isolated state of the characters' perspectives, Aronofsky alternates between extreme closeups and extreme distance from the action and intercuts reality with a character's fantasy. Aronofsky aims to subjectivise emotion, and the effect of his stylistic choices is personalisation rather than alienation.
The film's distancing itself from empathy is furthered structurally by the use of intertitles (Summer, Fall, Winter), marking the temporal progress of addiction. The average scene length shortens as the movie progresses (beginning around 90 seconds to two minutes) until the movie's climactic
scenes, which are cut together very rapidly (many changes per second) and are accompanied by a score which increases in intensity accordingly. After the climax, there is a short period of serenity, during which idyllic dreams of what may have been are juxtaposed with portraits of the four shattered lives.
, giving the film a 78% "Certified Fresh" rating, with the camera work and the individual performances particularly praised. Film critic James Berardinelli
considered Requiem for a Dream the second best film of the decade, behind the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
with the string ensemble performed by Kronos Quartet
. It is notable for its use of sharp string instruments to create a cold and discomforting sound from instruments frequently used for their warmth and softness. The string quartet arrangements were written by Pulitzer Prize
-winning composer David Lang
.
The soundtrack has been widely praised and has subsequently been used in various forms in trailers for other films, including The Da Vinci Code
, Sunshine
, Lost
, I Am Legend
, Babylon A.D.
, and Zathura
. A version of the recurring theme was reorchestrated for the film trailer for The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.
The soundtrack also confirmed its popularity with the remix
album Requiem for a Dream: Remixed, which contains new mixes of the music by Paul Oakenfold
, Josh Wink
, Jagz Kooner
, and Delerium
, among others.
Drama film
A drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, class divisions, violence against women...
directed by Darren Aronofsky
Darren Aronofsky
Darren Aronofsky is an American film director, screenwriter and film producer. He attended Harvard University to study film theory and the American Film Institute to study both live-action and animation filmmaking...
and starring Ellen Burstyn
Ellen Burstyn
Ellen Burstyn is a leading American actress of film, stage, and television. Burstyn's career began in theatre during the late 1950s, and over the next ten years she appeared in several films and television series before joining the Actors Studio in 1967...
, Jared Leto
Jared Leto
Jared Joseph Leto is an American actor, director, producer, occasional model and musician. Leto has appeared in both big budget Hollywood films and smaller projects from independent producers and art houses. He rose to prominence for playing Jordan Catalano in the teenage drama My So-Called Life...
, Marlon Wayans
Marlon Wayans
Marlon L. Wayans is an American actor, model producer, comedian, writer, and director of movies, beginning with his role as a pedestrian in I'm Gonna Git You Sucka in 1988...
and Jennifer Connelly
Jennifer Connelly
Jennifer Lynn Connelly is an American film actress, who began her career as a child model. She appeared in magazine, newspaper and television advertising, before making her motion picture debut in the 1984 crime film Once Upon a Time in America...
. The film is based on the novel of the same name
Requiem for a Dream (novel)
Requiem for a Dream is a 1978 novel by Hubert Selby, Jr., that concerns four New Yorkers whose lives spiral out of control as they succumb to their addictions....
by Hubert Selby, Jr.
Hubert Selby, Jr.
Hubert "Cubby" Selby, Jr. was a 20th century American writer. His best-known novels are Last Exit to Brooklyn and Requiem for a Dream . Both novels were later adapted into films within his lifetime....
, with whom Aronofsky wrote the screenplay. Burstyn was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress
Academy Award for Best Actress
Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry...
for her performance. The film was screened out of competition at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival
2000 Cannes Film Festival
The 2000 Cannes Film Festival started on May 14 and ran until May 25. The Palme d'Or went to the Danish film Dancer in the Dark by Lars von Trier.-Jury:* Luc Besson, President * Jonathan Demme * Nicole Garcia...
.
The film depicts different forms of addiction
Substance dependence
The section about substance dependence in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders does not use the word addiction at all. It explains:...
, leading to the characters’ imprisonment in a world of delusion and reckless desperation that is subsequently overtaken and devastated by reality.
Plot
The film charts three seasons in the lives of Sara Goldfarb (Ellen BurstynEllen Burstyn
Ellen Burstyn is a leading American actress of film, stage, and television. Burstyn's career began in theatre during the late 1950s, and over the next ten years she appeared in several films and television series before joining the Actors Studio in 1967...
), her son Harry (Jared Leto
Jared Leto
Jared Joseph Leto is an American actor, director, producer, occasional model and musician. Leto has appeared in both big budget Hollywood films and smaller projects from independent producers and art houses. He rose to prominence for playing Jordan Catalano in the teenage drama My So-Called Life...
), Harry’s girlfriend Marion Silver (Jennifer Connelly
Jennifer Connelly
Jennifer Lynn Connelly is an American film actress, who began her career as a child model. She appeared in magazine, newspaper and television advertising, before making her motion picture debut in the 1984 crime film Once Upon a Time in America...
), and Harry’s friend Tyrone C. Love (Marlon Wayans
Marlon Wayans
Marlon L. Wayans is an American actor, model producer, comedian, writer, and director of movies, beginning with his role as a pedestrian in I'm Gonna Git You Sucka in 1988...
).
The story begins in summer; Sara Goldfarb, an elderly widow living alone in Brighton Beach
Brighton Beach
Brighton Beach is an oceanside neighborhood in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. As of 2000, it has a population of 75,692 with a total of 31,228 households.-Location:...
, Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
, spends her time watching infomercial
Infomercial
Infomercials are direct response television commercials which generally include a phone number or website. There are long-form infomercials, which are typically between 15 and 30 minutes in length, and short-form infomercials, which are typically 30 seconds to 120 seconds in length. Infomercials...
s hosted by Tappy Tibbons (Christopher McDonald
Christopher McDonald
Christopher McDonald is an American actor. He is known for his roles as Shooter McGavin in Happy Gilmore, Tappy Tibbons in Requiem for a Dream, and Mel Allen in the HBO film 61*.-Personal life:...
). After a phone call announces that she will be invited to be a participant on a game show, she becomes obsessed with regaining the youthful appearance she possesses in a photograph from Harry's graduation, her proudest moment. In order to fit into her old red dress, the favorite of her deceased husband Seymour, she begins taking a regimen of prescription weight-loss
Anti-obesity drug
Anti-obesity medication or weight loss drugs are all pharmacological agents that reduce or control weight. These drugs alter one of the fundamental processes of the human body, weight regulation, by either altering appetite, metabolism, or absorption of calories. It is common for them to be tried...
amphetamine
Amphetamine
Amphetamine or amfetamine is a psychostimulant drug of the phenethylamine class which produces increased wakefulness and focus in association with decreased fatigue and appetite.Brand names of medications that contain, or metabolize into, amphetamine include Adderall, Dexedrine, Dextrostat,...
pills throughout the day and a sedative
Benzodiazepine
A benzodiazepine is a psychoactive drug whose core chemical structure is the fusion of a benzene ring and a diazepine ring...
at night. Despite Harry’s warnings about amphetamine addiction, she passionately insists that the chance to be on television has given her a reason to live. When her invitation does not arrive over the fall, she increases her dosage but begins suffering from amphetamine psychosis, hallucinating that she is the principal subject of the game show and that her refrigerator is a menacing, living monster.
Harry is a heroin addict; together with fellow addicts Tyrone and Marion, he enters the illegal drug trade
Illegal drug trade
The illegal drug trade is a global black market, dedicated to cultivation, manufacture, distribution and sale of those substances which are subject to drug prohibition laws. Most jurisdictions prohibit trade, except under license, of many types of drugs by drug prohibition laws.A UN report said the...
around Coney Island
Coney Island
Coney Island is a peninsula and beach on the Atlantic Ocean in southern Brooklyn, New York, United States. The site was formerly an outer barrier island, but became partially connected to the mainland by landfill....
in an attempt to realize their dreams. With the money they make over the summer, Harry and Marion hope to open a fashion store for Marion’s designs, while Tyrone dreams of making his mother proud by escaping the street. However, at the beginning of fall, Tyrone is caught in the middle of a drug gang assassination, and Harry must use most of their money to post bail. Increasing drug-related violence and arrests begin making it hard to obtain drugs, throwing Harry, Tyrone, and Marion into a state of deprivation. Growing more desperate, Harry convinces Marion to have sex with her psychiatrist in exchange for money, causing a rift in the relationship. Meanwhile, Harry’s arm is becoming infected from unsanitary injection techniques.
As Sara’s sanity unravels, she takes the subway to visit the television studio in Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
. The secretary at the studio calls a hospital and Sara is involuntarily committed
Involuntary commitment
Involuntary commitment or civil commitment is a legal process through which an individual with symptoms of severe mental illness is court-ordered into treatment in a hospital or in the community ....
to a psychiatric ward where she undergoes unsuccessful medicative treatment, followed by electroconvulsive therapy
Electroconvulsive therapy
Electroconvulsive therapy , formerly known as electroshock, is a psychiatric treatment in which seizures are electrically induced in anesthetized patients for therapeutic effect. Its mode of action is unknown...
. Harry and Tyrone set out for Florida to obtain drugs, but Harry’s increasingly infected arm forces them to visit a hospital in South Carolina
South Carolina
South Carolina is a state in the Deep South of the United States that borders Georgia to the south, North Carolina to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence...
, where they are arrested for skipping bail. Tyrone must deal with hard labor, racist prison guards and drug withdrawal
Withdrawal
Withdrawal can refer to any sort of separation, but is most commonly used to describe the group of symptoms that occurs upon the abrupt discontinuation/separation or a decrease in dosage of the intake of medications, recreational drugs, and alcohol...
, as Harry is taken to a prison hospital to have his arm amputated
Amputation
Amputation is the removal of a body extremity by trauma, prolonged constriction, or surgery. As a surgical measure, it is used to control pain or a disease process in the affected limb, such as malignancy or gangrene. In some cases, it is carried out on individuals as a preventative surgery for...
. Harry has a recurring dream of Marion waiting for him at a pier at Coney Island, but awakens and realizes that he is alone in jail with just one arm. Back in New York, Marion meets with a pimp (Keith David
Keith David
Keith David Williams , better known as Keith David, is an American film, television, voice actor, and singer. He is perhaps most known for his live-action roles in such films as Crash, There's Something About Mary, Barbershop and Men at Work...
), who gives her drugs in exchange for sex and puts her in sex show
Sex show
A sex show is a form of live performance that features one or more performers engaging in some form of sexual activity on stage for the entertainment or sexual gratification of spectators. Performers are paid either by the spectators or by the organisers of the show. A performance would involve an...
s to provide for her drug habit.
Lost in misery, each character curls into a fetal position
Fetal position
Fetal position is a medical term used to describe the positioning of the body of a prenatal fetus as it develops...
. In Sara’s dream, she wins the game show’s grand prize and meets Harry there. In her fantasy, Harry is a successful businessman and engaged to Marion. Sara and Harry hug and say how much they love one another through the cheers of the crowd and the glowing stage lights.
Cast
- Ellen BurstynEllen BurstynEllen Burstyn is a leading American actress of film, stage, and television. Burstyn's career began in theatre during the late 1950s, and over the next ten years she appeared in several films and television series before joining the Actors Studio in 1967...
as Sara Goldfarb - Jared LetoJared LetoJared Joseph Leto is an American actor, director, producer, occasional model and musician. Leto has appeared in both big budget Hollywood films and smaller projects from independent producers and art houses. He rose to prominence for playing Jordan Catalano in the teenage drama My So-Called Life...
as Harry Goldfarb - Jennifer ConnellyJennifer ConnellyJennifer Lynn Connelly is an American film actress, who began her career as a child model. She appeared in magazine, newspaper and television advertising, before making her motion picture debut in the 1984 crime film Once Upon a Time in America...
as Marion Silver - Marlon WayansMarlon WayansMarlon L. Wayans is an American actor, model producer, comedian, writer, and director of movies, beginning with his role as a pedestrian in I'm Gonna Git You Sucka in 1988...
as Tyrone C. Love - Christopher McDonald as Tappy Tibbons
- Mark MargolisMark MargolisMark Margolis is an American actor who has been making films since 1976.Margolis went to Temple University briefly before moving to New York City, where he studied drama with Stella Adler and at the Actors Studio...
as Mr. Rabinowitz - Louise LasserLouise LasserLouise Lasser is an American actress. She is known for her portrayal of the title character on the soap opera parody Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman. She was married to Woody Allen and appeared in several of his films.-Personal life:...
as Ada - Marcia Jean Kurtz as Rae
- Sean GulletteSean GulletteSean Gullette is a writer, actor, and filmmaker.-Biography:He was born in Boston and attended public schools and Harvard, where he acted in theater and films and directed plays....
as Arnold the shrink - Keith DavidKeith DavidKeith David Williams , better known as Keith David, is an American film, television, voice actor, and singer. He is perhaps most known for his live-action roles in such films as Crash, There's Something About Mary, Barbershop and Men at Work...
as Big Tim - Dylan BakerDylan BakerDylan Baker is an American actor, known for playing supporting roles in both major studio and independent films.-Early life:...
as Southern Doctor - Ajay NaiduAjay NaiduAjay Kalahastri Naidu is an American actor.Naidu was born in Evanston, Illinois He attended Evanston Township High School. As an actor, he trained with the American Repertory Theater's Institute for Advanced Theatre Training at Harvard University.His first professional acting job was the film ...
as Mailman - Ben ShenkmanBen ShenkmanBenjamin Shenkman is an American television, film and stage actor.-Life and career:Shenkman was born in New York City and raised in what he described as "the secular Eastern European Jewish tradition". He graduated from Brown University, and obtained a Masters of Fine Arts in 1993 from New York...
as Dr. Spencer - Hubert Selby, Jr.Hubert Selby, Jr.Hubert "Cubby" Selby, Jr. was a 20th century American writer. His best-known novels are Last Exit to Brooklyn and Requiem for a Dream . Both novels were later adapted into films within his lifetime....
as Laughing Guard - Darren AronofskyDarren AronofskyDarren Aronofsky is an American film director, screenwriter and film producer. He attended Harvard University to study film theory and the American Film Institute to study both live-action and animation filmmaking...
as Visitor
Production
The film rights to Selby's book were optioned by Scott Vogel for Truth and Soul Pictures in 1997 prior to the release of Aronofsky's film π.Rating
In the United States, the film was originally rated NC-17 by the MPAA, but Aronofsky appealed the rating, claiming that cutting any portion of the film would dilute its message. The appeal was denied and Artisan decided to release the film unrated. An R-rated version was released on video, with the sex scene edited, but the rest of the movie identical to the unrated version.In the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, the film was given an 18 certificate
18 certificate
The 18 certificate is issued by the British Board of Film Classification to state that, in its opinion, a film, video recording, or game should not be seen or purchased by a person under 18 years old....
by the BBFC.
Themes
The majority of reviewers characterized Requiem for a Dream in the genreGenre
Genre , Greek: genos, γένος) is the term for any category of literature or other forms of art or culture, e.g. music, and in general, any type of discourse, whether written or spoken, audial or visual, based on some set of stylistic criteria. Genres are formed by conventions that change over time...
of "drug movies", along with films like Trainspotting
Trainspotting (film)
Trainspotting is a 1996 British satirical/drama film directed by Danny Boyle based on the novel of the same name by Irvine Welsh. The movie follows a group of heroin addicts in a late 1980s economically depressed area of Edinburgh and their passage through life...
, Spun
Spun
Spun is a 2002 American crime dramedy directed by Jonas Åkerlund, and starring Jason Schwartzman, Brittany Murphy, Mickey Rourke, Mena Suvari, John Leguizamo, Patrick Fugit, Eric Roberts, Chloe Hunter, and Debbie Harry. It is Åkerlund's début as a feature-film director, having already become known...
, and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (film)
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is a 1998 American drama film directed by Terry Gilliam, starring Johnny Depp as Raoul Duke and Benicio del Toro as Dr. Gonzo. It was adapted from Hunter S. Thompson's 1971 novel of the same name....
. However, Aronofsky has said:
In the book, Selby refers to the "American Dream
American Dream
The American Dream is a national ethos of the United States in which freedom includes a promise of the possibility of prosperity and success. In the definition of the American Dream by James Truslow Adams in 1931, "life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each...
" as amorphous and unattainable, a compilation of the various desires of the story's characters.
Style
As in his previous film, π, Aronofsky uses montages of extremely short shots throughout the film (sometimes termed a hip hop montage). While an average 100-minute film has 600 to 700 cuts, Requiem features more than 2,000. Split-screen is used extensively, along with extremely tight closeups. Long tracking shots (including those shot with an apparatus strapping a camera to an actor, called the SnorricamSnorriCam
A SnorriCam is a camera device used in filmmaking that is rigged to the body of the actor, facing the actor directly, so when they walk, they do not appear to move, but everything around them does...
) and time-lapse
Time-lapse
Time-lapse photography is a cinematography technique whereby the frequency at which film frames are captured is much lower than that which will be used to play the sequence back. When replayed at normal speed, time appears to be moving faster and thus lapsing...
photography are also prominent stylistic devices.
In order to portray the shift from the objective, community-based narrative to the subjective, isolated state of the characters' perspectives, Aronofsky alternates between extreme closeups and extreme distance from the action and intercuts reality with a character's fantasy. Aronofsky aims to subjectivise emotion, and the effect of his stylistic choices is personalisation rather than alienation.
The film's distancing itself from empathy is furthered structurally by the use of intertitles (Summer, Fall, Winter), marking the temporal progress of addiction. The average scene length shortens as the movie progresses (beginning around 90 seconds to two minutes) until the movie's climactic
Climax (narrative)
The Climax is the point in the story where the main character's point of view changes, or the most exciting/action filled part of the story. It also known has the main turning point in the story...
scenes, which are cut together very rapidly (many changes per second) and are accompanied by a score which increases in intensity accordingly. After the climax, there is a short period of serenity, during which idyllic dreams of what may have been are juxtaposed with portraits of the four shattered lives.
Reception
The film received a largely positive response from critics, with the film aggregator website, Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
, giving the film a 78% "Certified Fresh" rating, with the camera work and the individual performances particularly praised. Film critic James Berardinelli
James Berardinelli
James Berardinelli is an American online film critic.-Personal life:Berardinelli was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey and spent his early childhood in Morristown, New Jersey. At the age of nine years, he relocated to the township of Cherry Hill, New Jersey...
considered Requiem for a Dream the second best film of the decade, behind the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
Soundtrack
The soundtrack was composed by Clint MansellClint Mansell
Clinton Darryl "Clint" Mansell, is an English musician, composer, and former lead singer and guitarist of the band Pop Will Eat Itself....
with the string ensemble performed by Kronos Quartet
Kronos Quartet
Kronos Quartet is a string quartet founded by violinist David Harrington in 1973 in Seattle, Washington. Since 1978, the quartet has been based in San Francisco, California. The longest-running combination of performers had Harrington and John Sherba on violin, Hank Dutt on viola, and Joan...
. It is notable for its use of sharp string instruments to create a cold and discomforting sound from instruments frequently used for their warmth and softness. The string quartet arrangements were written by Pulitzer Prize
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
-winning composer David Lang
David Lang (composer)
David Lang is an American composer living in New York City. He was awarded the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Music for The Little Match Girl Passion.-Biography:...
.
The soundtrack has been widely praised and has subsequently been used in various forms in trailers for other films, including The Da Vinci Code
The Da Vinci Code (film)
The Da Vinci Code is a 2006 American mystery thriller film directed by Ron Howard. The screenplay was written by Akiva Goldsman and based on Dan Brown's worldwide bestselling 2003 novel, The Da Vinci Code...
, Sunshine
Sunshine (2007 film)
Sunshine is a 2007 British science fiction film directed by Danny Boyle and written by Alex Garland about the crew of a spacecraft on a dangerous mission to the Sun. In 2057, with the Earth in peril from the dying Sun, the crew is sent to reignite the Sun with a massive stellar bomb with the mass...
, Lost
Catch-22 (Lost)
"Catch-22" is the 17th episode of the third season of Lost, and the 66th episode overall. It was aired in the US on April 18, 2007 on ABC. The episode was written by Jeff Pinkner and Brian K. Vaughan, and directed by Stephen Williams...
, I Am Legend
I Am Legend (film)
I Am Legend is a 2007 post-apocalyptic science fiction film directed by Francis Lawrence and starring Will Smith. It is the third feature film adaptation of Richard Matheson's 1954 novel of the same name, following 1964's The Last Man on Earth and 1971's The Omega Man. Smith plays virologist Robert...
, Babylon A.D.
Babylon A.D. (film)
Babylon A.D. is a 2008 science fiction action film based on the novel Babylon Babies by Maurice Georges Dantec. The film was directed by Mathieu Kassovitz and stars Vin Diesel, Mélanie Thierry, Michelle Yeoh and Lambert Wilson...
, and Zathura
Zathura (film)
Zathura: A Space Adventure is a 2005 fantasy science fiction film directed by Jon Favreau, and is loosely based on the illustrated book Zathura by Chris Van Allsburg, author of Jumanji. It stars Jonah Bobo as Danny and Josh Hutcherson as Walter. Tim Robbins also had a small role as the boys'...
. A version of the recurring theme was reorchestrated for the film trailer for The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.
The soundtrack also confirmed its popularity with the remix
Remix
A remix is an alternative version of a recorded song, made from an original version. This term is also used for any alterations of media other than song ....
album Requiem for a Dream: Remixed, which contains new mixes of the music by Paul Oakenfold
Paul Oakenfold
Paul Mark Oakenfold is a British record producer and a trance DJ.-Early Career: 1979–84:Paul Oakenfold's career was set to be a chef, after having hopes of becoming part of a band. He describes his early life as a "bedroom deejay" in a podcasted interview with Vancouver's 24 Hours, stating he grew...
, Josh Wink
Josh Wink
Josh Wink is an electronic music DJ, label owner, producer, remixer, and artist. He is a native of Philadelphia, United States. A pioneering DJ in the American rave scene during the early 1990s, Wink was the most prominent exponent of the tribal forms of techno and house in the U.S...
, Jagz Kooner
Jagz Kooner
Jagz Kooner is a UK born producer who has worked with Radio 4, Manic Street Preachers, Primal Scream for whom he co-produced their well-known cover version of the song 'Some Velvet Morning' sung this time by the model Kate Moss, Garbage and Infadels...
, and Delerium
Delerium
Delerium is a band from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, formed in 1987, originally as a side project of the influential industrial music act, Front Line Assembly...
, among others.